A photo of a woman's feet in a bathtub went viral
earlier this week after Reddit users claimed they belonged to
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The rumor was quickly debunked, but The Daily Caller
published a headline that was not clear the photo was actually
of another woman.

Ocasio-Cortez lashed out at the conservative outlet on
Thursday morning, calling its publication "completely
disgusting behavior."

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacked the
conservative news site The Daily Caller on Wednesday for
publishing what she called "a fake nude photo of me" under a
misleading headline.

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The photo went viral this week after people circulated it on
Reddit, claiming it showed Ocasio-Cortez. It shows a pair of feet
in a bathtub, but a blurred reflection of a nude female torso is
also visible.

Motherboard on Monday
reported that the photo was actually of the political
activist Sydney Leathers, who told the outlet the picture shows
her body and "is a few years old."

The Daily Caller on Monday reported Motherboard's story under the
headline "Here's The Photo Some People Described As A Nude Selfie
of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez."

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Though it is accurate to say "some people described" the photo as
showing Ocasio-Cortez, the headline did not acknowledge that
those people had already been found to be wrong.

Ocasio-Cortez lashed out at the outlet on Wednesday night,
slamming The Daily Caller's publication as "completely disgusting
behavior."

For those out of the loop, Republicans began to circulate a fake nude photo of me. The @DailyCaller reposted it (!) and refused to indicate it was fake in the title as well.

The Daily Caller has since changed
its headline to "Anthony Weiner Mistress Stands Up for AOC After
Evil Internet Trolls Spread Fake Nude Photo," referring to
Leathers, who was
linked to the disgraced New York congressman Anthony Weiner's
sexting scandals uncovered in 2016. AOC are Ocasio-Cortez's
initials.

The outlet also added a correction at the bottom of the article,
which said: "An earlier version of the headline for this story
made an inaccurate implication. The story has since been updated
for accuracy."

A cached version of the article with the original headline can be
found
here.

caption

Ocasio-Cortez at her first day as a congressional representative on January 3, 2019.

source

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The Daily Caller responded to Ocasio-Cortez's tweet shortly
afterwards, tweeting:
"As soon as editors noticed the twitter headline, we rapidly had
it deleted and fixed."

"We regret the error, as the intent was to inform our audience
that a fake image was circulating online," the outlet added.

The Daily Caller's editor-in-chef, Geoffrey Ingersoll, also told
Business Insider in an email: "I had the headline corrected and
updated early in the day, as soon as I noticed it. Obviously an
eager editor made a misjudgment as to the framing."

Ingersoll added that the story "is about how Ocasio-Cortez's
enemies ... who [reporter] Betsy [Rothstein] describes as both
horrible and evil - conjured this fake nude and spread it
online."

Ocasio-Cortez had her first day as the congressional
representative of New York's 14th district on January 3. She told
INSIDER's Eliza Relman
in a recent interview that she writes all her own tweets but
deletes many drafted in anger before publishing them.